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So it's been a long time since I've been here. A really long time. It's been just over 2 years ago since I injured myself in my first (and only) powerlifting competition, which started a downward spiral that ended up in major back surgery. It's also been almost 14 months since my son was born. There have been many reasons that I haven't been back in a gym, some good, some not so good. The main reason is that I've not had the time and determination to get back.

In the meantime I've gotten weaker, but managed to lose about 50 lbs. Right before my meet I was about 416. As of this morning I'm down to 366. I'm still under a major time crunch, but I am tired of being tired and weak and fat. Over the next year I'm still going to be under a time crunch... enough that driving 30 minutes each way to a gym and trying to get an hour workout in just isn't going to cut it. So, I've decided to cut things way back to basics and start with a very basic kettlebell workout and after things cool down a bit, going for an evening walk with the wife & kiddo.

So the wife & I started out with getting a 15lb and 25lb kettlebell. I'll be adding the 35 and 44 later this week, since the 25 is probably lighter than I want. But they're enough to get started and figure out what I'm supposed to be doing and not supposed to be doing. I also picked up a copy of Pavel's "Enter the Kettlebell", which is what I'll be using for a template.

So for today's workout I did:

Warm up with some hip and back stretching
Some kettlebell halos to warm up the shoulders
A couple of turkish get-ups. Damn these things are hard!
A few more half turkish get-ups to work the core.
2 sets of 10 one-handed kettlebell swings, alternating hands with each rep.

And that's it. I'm starting light and easy with the intention of adding more to each workout. Right now the CV conditioning needs a lot of work, so I'll probably stick with adding get-ups until I can get to sets of 5 on each side, and adding sets of 10 kettlebell swings until I'm comfortable adding weight or reps. It was enough to get the muscles worked and get the blood and sweat flowing.

Next year this time my time crunch will ease up, since I'll be going back to school full-time, and my classrooms will be right next to the gym. I'll be using the KB workouts between now and then to improve my overall strength and CV fitness so when I get back under a barbell I won't feel like a complete weakling

Hey, I remember you from M&S! I'll definitely be following along and wish you the best of luck in your journey. How have you found the kettlebells on your hands? I did a lot of kettlebell work last year and I would always be ripping callouses and getting blood blisters.

I haven't run into any callous issues with the kettlebells as of yet, but I have just started with them. Pavel does make several suggestions for preventing callous problems in his book. I'll look them up and post here.